Real estate stocks surge on budget cues

May 02, 2014 - 12:13:34 am

By Satish Kanady

DOHA: Taking a cue from Qatar’s big number budget announcements, the country’s listed real estate companies made a stunning performance in April. The month witnessed a stupendous growth in the earnings of the realty companies.

The shares of Ezdan surged 108.05 percent in April, defying a three straight month drops since January 2014.

Mazaya Qatar jumped 46.90 percent in the post-budget announcement month. The company saw its shares gaining 15.73 percent in March.

The UDC which dropped in February and March, rebounded in April gaining 22.90 percent on strong budget announcements. Barwa extended its rally to the fourth straight month by adding 2.88 percent. The real estate sector index, which soared 16.11 percent, was one of the key drivers of the bourse’s stellar performance in April, the month that saw the main index breaking QE’s historic highs. The sector led the trading volume accounting for 34.62 percent of the total traded volume in April.

The combined net profit of the four real estate companies surged to QR1.09bn in the first quarter of 2014, from QR622m a year ago. Mazaya Qatar’s net profit jumped to QR22.3m from QR2m reported in Q12013. The company’s earnings per share rose to QR0.22 from QR0.02 in Q1, 2013. Ezdan’s first quarter net profit increased to QR460.7m from QR252.7m. Ezdan’s earnings per share rose to QR0.17 from QR0.10.

Barwa that reported a QR265.1m net profit compared to QR158.5m in Q1, 2013 witnessed its EPS increasing to QR0.68 from QR0.41 during the period. UDC’s net profit increased to QR351.5m from QR209.4m. The construction giant’s EPS rose to QR0.17 from QR0.10.

After trading lower in March due to weak regional sentiments, Qatar Exchange index rose 8.92 percent in April, the highest monthly gain of the year. Barwa Real Estate, UDC, Mazaya Qatar, Masraf Al Rayan and Vodafone Qatar were among the top gainers.

Howeverm during the past week, the index dropped 227.29 points, or 1.75 percent.

The trading value of QR5,100,291,233.51 is a decrease by 30.53 percent compared to QR7,341,740,117.18 from the previous week. In the last week of the month, real estate was the real winner in the trading value with 38.54 percent of the total.